Rubber bullets fired during second night of unrest in Northern Ireland

Fifteen officers were injured when petrol bombs, bricks, fireworks and stones were thrown at them and a van was hijacked and driven into police lines.

The total number of injured officers now stands at 62 after 47 were hurt when violence erupted in the area on Sunday night, including four who received hospital treatment before being released.

Loyalists had gathered in Denmark Street and republicans on the Antrim Road on Monday evening.

Water cannon and baton rounds were deployed by police until area calmed down in the early hours of this morning.

When disturbances in the area started on Sunday it was claimed the loyalists were angry that a republican parade had had no restrictions placed on it by the Parades Commission, which regulates contentious marches in Northern Ireland.

But SDLP spokesman Alban Maginness alleged that there had been "nothing spontaneous" about the loyalist rioting.

"The bulk of the violence over the past two days has, I believe, been sustained by loyalist paramilitaries," said the North Belfast assembly member.

"I think this is an attempt to intimidate the lawful authorities."

But Winston Irvine of the loyalist North and West Belfast Parades Forum dismissed claims that the violence had been orchestrated by paramilitaries as "sheer rubbish.

"The violence is unacceptable but it's also very understandable," he claimed.

"This is a community backlash which has been building for some time."

Three of the police officers injured on Monday were taken to hospital but later released, the Police Service of Northern Ireland said.

Meanwhile, an Irish crime boss and member of the Real IRA was shot dead in a gangland-style attack in Dublin.

Alan Ryan is understood to have been shot at least once in the head on Monday afternoon close to his home in Clongriffin, in the north of the Irish Republic's capital.

Ryan was facing charges over an alleged extortion racket.

According to the Irish Times, he and his Real IRA associates had become involved in feuding with a number of major crime gangs from the city.

bill@peoples-press.com